CS 71 
.B469 
1907 
Copy 1 



THE BENNETTS 





o/ 




V! -f >, " . 










SAUGUS, LYNN and GROTON 




'P-e«W by ^r. Frank P. Bcnn.U 
Hot,, a meeting of the 
Lynn Historical Societs, 
on S^ovember / V, I9U7 






—OToyf 



^rj-/S-18S- 




THE OLD BENNETT HOUSE, SAUGUS, MASS. 
Built by Samuel Bennett, or one of his sons, soon after 1636 



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MY great-great-grandfather, Moses Bennett of Groton, who bought 
a farm in that town. June 14, 1718, and married August 11, 1719, 
the daughter of James Blanchard of Dunstable is the pivot 
upon which a multitude of genealogical researches turn 
throughout the United States. I used the present tense advisedly, because 
although he is dead so far as the payment of poll taxes and other civic duties 
are concerned, he is yet very much alive in the genealogical researches 
alluded to, and I frequently receive inquiries from his widely separated 
descendants who differ somewhat as to his antecedents. My own theory 
has been that he was the great-grandson of Samuel Bennett of Saugus and 
Lynn, and while others difter with me in opinion, yet' a variety of 
correspondence which comes to hand from time to time, appears to confirm 
my theory. 

Samuel Bennett, whose active participation in the early affairs of 
Saugus and Lynn, is known to you all, came over in the ship James in 1635, 
when 24 years of age. The house which still exists on Howard Street, 
Saugus, near where I reside, and which is one of the best preserved specimens 
of colonial architecture in New England, was built either by Samuel Bennett 
or one of his two sons, and although it is frequently referred to as the 
Boardman Hotise, yet its early connection with the history of Lynn, Saugus 
and Boston would be better emphasized if it were designated "The Bennett 
House." 

The oldest son of Samuel Bennett, of Saugus, namely Samuel Bennett, 
Jr., whose marriage to the daughter of William Hargrave, of Horsey-Down, 
England, was the cause of the oft-quoted instrument of settlement by his 



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father recorded in Suffolk County Deeds, Boston, IV: 328. is the one who 
] theorize subsequently removed to Groton, Mass. The second and third 
sons, Elisha and .lohn, were both mariners. John Bennett had a wife, 
Susanna, in 1673, but before 1677 he married Aphra, widow of Jonathan 
Adams, who had a son John Adams, born in 1672, and a daughter, Sarah 
Bennett, born in 1677. John Bennett had trouble in court with Samuel Adams 
of Chelmsford. He was in 1678, "shortly to go on a voyage." Captain 
Elisha Bennelt, the second son of the original Samuel, made his will April 
9, 1726, and the same was proved May 30, 1726. In his will he is described 
as of Rumney Marsh, and the will mentions his wife, Dorothy and children, 
John, Ellis and Sarah, who had grown and settled in life. The son Ellis 
was a mariner, and resided in Boston. The will also mentions a grandson, 
John Bennett at New York. 

Samuel Bennett, Jr., migrated from Saugus in the latter half of the 
seventeenth century, but Captain Elisha Bennett. Mariner, is believed to 
have strll lived in the old house which was then in that part of Boston 
called Rumney Marsh, now Chelsea, until at least the first half of the 
eighteenth century, as his will is recorded May 30, 1726, as already stated. 

The families who remain for generations in the same community 
are either too prosperous to be attracted by a change or too unenterprising 
and thriftless to move. The Bennett families who appear early and often 
and in many different localities in the early history of the American colonies, 
came generally between these two extremes. The little warship "Massachu- 
setts," which was one of the earliest naval efforts of these colonies, was 
commanded at the Siege of Louisburg by Captain Moses Bennett, and hia 



autograph appears among the archives at the State House in Boston, 
appended to the pay-rolls of that expedition. The first news of the fall 
of the great and strong fortress of Louisburg, which for thirty years the 
F'rench had been building at the front of Cape Breton Island, was brought 
to Boston by Captain Bennett at daybreak on Tuesday, July 3, 1745. Never 
was there such rejoicing — bells ringing; cannon thundering at Castle William 
at the north and south batteries; bon-fires on the common; tents spread; 
casks of wine tapped; at night, candles in every window and rockets 
streaming up the sky. 

Governor Richard Bennett of Virginia, born 1606, died 1676, was a 
member of the House of Burgesses in 1629; in the King's Council, 1642 to 
1660; Governor, 1652 to 1655; Commissioner to England, 1657; made the 
General of the Virginia forces, 1662 to 1672. There were Bennetts from 
Gowanus, New York, in the war with the Indians in 1643. Samuel Bennett 
of East. Greenwich and Coventry, Rhode Island, was a lieutenant in 1690 
and a deputy the same year. 

I am not going to repeat the many interesting facts respecting the 
life of Samuel Bennett in Lynn and Saugus, with which you are thoroughly 
familiar. He built the first Iron works in the Western Hemisphere at 
Saugus, not as owner, but as master mechanic; he did the teaming for them 
after they were completed, and he put them into bankruptcy when they 
ceased to be successful. He also owned and operated one of the oldest 
mill privileges upon Strawberry Brook, and he became as early as 1640 
one of the most enterprising citizens of this section of Massachusetts Bay 
Colony. The story that he moved into Boston because he was fined for 



sleeping In church in Lynn, is not necessary for the purposes of this paper. 
His liomest'ead was in that part of ancient l^ynn or Saugus, which, about 
1660, by the perfecting of the town bounds came into Boston, which then 
embraced ancient Chelsea, but which after the organization of the present 
town of Saugus was set off to Saugus. The ancient house on or near the 
site of the first house still stands, as already explained. Samuel Bennett 
was styled "carpenter," and in a deed in 1657 he conveyed "Rumly Hall" 
and eight acres of land to George Wallis, which estate is believed to have 
been nearer the present centre of Lynn than his home in what is now 
Oaklandvale, Saugus. In 1661, Samuel Bennett was one of the peramlTulators 
of the Tov.n of Boston to inspect and determine the line between Lynn and 
Boston. He fulfilled the same offices in 1665, and as late as 1671. He had 
five children, Samuel, Elisha, John, and a fourth one, whose name I have 
not found, and a fifth, Lydia. The marriage settlement of his oldest son, 
Samuel, Jr., constitutes a well known historical document. Captain Elisha 
Bennett, mariner of Rumney Marsh, made his will April 9, 1726. The 
descendants of the younger children of Samuel Bennett appear in Boston 
as late at 1787, and their descendants are possibly readily traced by those 
who are interested. 

I have said that there is some difference of opinion as to what became 
of Samuel Bennett, Jr., and that my own theory is that he removed to 
Groton, Mass., where there was an urgent demand for skilled mechanics 
in the latter part of the seventeenth century; and also considerable demand 
for men of courage to participate in the defense against the Indians. The 
name of Samuel Bennett appears frequently in the early history of Groton 



in the latter part of the seventeenth century, sometimes in charge of parties 
engaged in the defense of the town. The difficulties in the way of exact 
genealogical knowledge in the latter part of the seventeenth and the earlier 
years of the eighteenth centuries w^ere due not only to the defective character 
of the town and i>apfi?Ii records, but also to the general indifference of most 
of the inhabitants of communities in which a Calvinistic religious element 
was dominant. The people cared not so much about a man's grandfather 
as wnether he was one of God's "elect." 1 was much interested to read 
the following sentence even in a recent article by United States Senator 
Beveridge of Indiana, "You can open the Bible anywhere and be fascinated, 
except only and always its genealogies, which, as I have remarked before, 
are stupid and dull, whether they occur in the Bfble or in history, or in 
a family tree." That remark of Senator Beveridge seems to be the theory 
of H man who lives in a section of the United States where great and 
exacL interest is taken in the pedigrees of live stock. And most of us think 
ihe pedigrees of human beings are at least as intei'esting as the pedigrees 
of the domestic animals. 

In any event, family records were very defective in the seventeenth 
century. 

The heroic quality of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth and the 
stern religious character of the leaders of the early arrivals at Salem 
have idealized the nature of the entire immigration into the colonies which 
afterwards composed the state of Massachusetts. Samuel Bennett and 
probably a majority of the early settlers were purely commercial adventurers, 
looking for an opportunity to improve their material condition; but the 



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religious idea was dominant, and lent its color to an ot the activities of 
the colonists. Hence, if the theocratic rulers cared little about genealogy, 
the rank and file of the inhabitants had no reason to differ from them in 
that direction. 

However, from the date when my great-great-grandfather, Moses 
Bennett, bought land in Groton, June 14, 1718, and the next year was married 
tc Anna Blancliard of Dunstable, the family record is clear and definite, 
and the descendants of Moses Bennett are so numerous, and many of them 
so much interested in genealogical researches, that they feel quite confident 
of establishing the antecedents of Moses Bennett. 

The descendants of the Bennetts of Manchester, Mass., who are very 
numerous, are also interested in the same researches, and T have lately been 
in correspondence with several gentlemen of different branches of the Bennett 
family who have addressed inquiries to me upon these subjects. Another 
difficulty in tracing connections of the name of Bennett is that many of the 
families lack any common origin in recent years. 

I once devoted a little time in the British Museum and elsewhere in 
England to inquiries upon this subject, and found that while the family name 
Oi the Earl of Tankerville is Bennett, and that he is one of the great noblemen 
of England descended in the maternal line from that Earl of Arlington, who 
was also named I?ennett, and was one of the famous ministers of Chas. II; 
and while there are several important county families named Bennett, yet 
tiiere were numerous dock laborers; a leading clock maker of London, and, 
in fact, persons of this surname in every walk of life. In fact, the name 
of Bennett is in England little less numerous than Smith, because it was 



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originally a given name derived from St. Benedict. There are ancient 

churches in England known as St. Benet's. The derivation of the name 

from Benedict is clearly established, and while at first a given name, it 

became eventually a surname. However, very many of the Bennetts who 

were among the earlier settlers of Massachusetts and Virginia were connected. 

And their descendants have migrated numerously throughout the United 

States. As 1 wrote the above sentence, having the Travellers' Railway Guide 

of the United States at hand, 1 opened it and found thirty-one railroad stations 

named Bennett in various parts of the United States. Moses Bennett of 

Groton, who took up a farm in that town upon his own account in 1718 and 

married Anna Blanchard August 11, 1719, was born in 1691, and I theorize 

tiiat he was the great-grandson of the first Samuel Bennett of Lynn; but 

this theory is tentative, and may be disproved by the active researches of 

the number of intelligent descendants, who are now making inquiries upon 

this subject. Moses Bennett had ten children all enjoying good old Biblical 

names as follows: Abygail, or Abiah, Stephen, Moses, David, Eunice, 

Jonathan, James, Anna, Thomas and Aaron. The name of the ninth child, 

Thomas, who was my great-grandfather, appears on a muster roll dated 

Boston, February 5th, 1759. of a company of foot in his Majesty's service 

under (laptain Asa Whitcomb in Colonel .Jonathan Bagley's Regiment, raised 

by the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Thomas also marched on the alarm 

from Lexington, April 19th, and enlisted April 26th, 1775, in the eight 

months' regiments, taking part at Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, but 

was disabled later, and when he died, was reported as "Lately deceased 

occasioned by ye hardships and difhculties he underwent in ye late expedition 



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Under Capt. Tyng, being taken sick and dieing at Charlestown." It used to 
be a family tradition tliat Thomas was hoeing in the field when the news 
came of the alarm at Lexington, and that he dropped his hoe where he was 
at work, and responded to the alarm. So many men are reported as having 
dropped their hoes in order to res])ond to the alarm, that I have been 
doubtful about this tradition, especially as April 19th was rather early for 
hoeing in this latitude. 

The widow of Thomas, who was my great-grandmother, subsequently 
married Gershom Hobart, a lineal descendant of the early minister of Groton, 
and removed to Washington, Vermont, where she lived to be one hundred 
years of age or more. She is known to have been livin" Ja 1830, when my 
father was nineteen years of age, and was a prolific source of information, 
especially concerning the migration of the Whitcombs, Bennettss, and others 
from Groton to Vermont at the close of the eighteenth century. 

On July 27, 1694, Gershom Hobart, the minister of Groton, with part 
of his family, was remarkably preserved from falling into the hands of the 
Indians when they made themselves the masters of his house, though they 
took two of the children, whereof the one was killed and the other sometime 
after, happily rescued out of his captivity. Gershom, Jr., son of the Rev. 
Mr. Hobart, whom Mather mentions as having been rescued from captivity, 
is said to have been carried to the east. The first information his friends 
received of him was in May following his captivity, at a fort a day's journey 
from Norridgewog, and his master's name w'as Nassacunbewit, the chief captain 
of the place. Both his master and mistress were kind to him and afterwards 
granted his ransom. 



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The widow of Thomas Bennett of Revohitionary fame, removed with 
iier second husband, Gershom Hobart, to Washington, Vt. Her second child) 
Naomi, married June 6th, 1796, Gershom Irlobart, Jr. My gnandfatlier, Imlah 
Bennett, who was born at Shirley, Mass., October 5th, 1774, went with the 
Hobarts to Washington, Vt., and was present when that town was organized, 
Alarch 1, 17!J2, being then only about seventeen years of age. The 
settlement of Washington, Vt. commenced in 1785, but the town was not 
organized until March 1st, 1792. Mr. Hobart's name did not appear in the 
town records until September 2nd, 1794, when it is recorded that Gershom 
Hobart, Jr., Joseph Trufant and others were enrolled "freemen." 

Ihere has been a theory that my great-great-grandfather, Moses 
Bennett, who. with Benjamin Bennett, appeared in Groton purchasing farms 
on the same day, June 14, 1718, were grandsons of the Moses Bennett of 
vvhom trace was lost in Manchester, Mass., in 1686. The Bennett family 
of Manchester descended from William Bennett, an original planter of the 
town, who died in 1683, leaving two sons, Moses and Aaron, then men grown; 
Moses was the oldest. Jane, the widow of William Bennett, in 1686 conveyed 
certain rights and lands to her sons, Moses and Aaron, and this is the last 
we hear of that particular Moses. The son Aaron had a family, and from 
him the later generations in Manchester and vicinity of the Bennett name 
descend, and the names of Aaron and Moses predominate among their 
descendants. 

The theory that Moses Bennett of Groton came from Manchester 
instead of from Lynn is disputed by a statement in Hazen's History of Billerica, 
Massachusetts, where it is alleged that the father of Moses was probably 



James, of Groton, who 1 argue was fhe grandson of the original Samuel 
of Lynn. Grolon was incorporated in 1655, the coast of New l<]ngland having 
become the jiropeity of King James 1st of England by the discoveries of 
John and Sebastian Cabot and Bartholomew Gosnold and other navigators. 
The king granted the territory to the Council of Plymouth, which in turn 
granted certain lands to the Governor and conii)any of Massachusetts Bay 
in New England. It is very interesting to recall how title to these lands 
was acriuired, in view of the fact that a great many people in the far West, 
who endeavor to acquire huge tracts of public land as squatters, assert 
that they are merely doing what our forefathers did in New England? 
Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Governor and company made 
grants of lands to companies and individuals for tow-ns and plantations, usually 
annexing certain conditions to their grants, such as that a certain number 
of settlers or families should within a certain time build or settle upon 
the same; or, that the Gospel should be regularly preached, or a church 
gathered upon the granted premises. At the General Court held at Boston 
on the 23rd of May, 1655, Groton was thus authorized. Later the petitioners 
asked to be relieved from county taxes, for three years, on account of the 
remoteness of the place and slowness of the work. The word "remoteness" 
as applied to Groton, sounds interesting in these days when Denver, San 
Francisco, and even Manila, are not particularly remote; but while Groton 
was remote from the safer settlements upon the seaboard, it seems not to 
have been remote for a young man who was in love, as Moses, having 
promptly acquired title to his fanu, soon began to go back and forth easily 
to Dunstable, which then comprised what is now Nashua, New Hampshire. 



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One of the poriods when New Hampsnire \vas part of Massachusetts was 
from 1699 to 1741. From Castle Hill in Saugus, one can readily look beyond 
both Groton and Nashua and see the Uncanoonuc Hills near Manchester, 
New Hampshire. 

Hence the seventeenth century idea of remoteness to those of us 
>-ho are accustomed to travel from New York to Chicago in eighteen hours, 
suggests that more material progress has been made in the last half century 
than in all the previous centuries of the world's written history. The early 
colonists in Massachusetts Bay were very like the Israelites 3,000 years 
earlier, in their appreciation of distances, and their means of locomotion, 
no less than in their constant reliance upon divine guidance. The story of 
the rebuilding of Groton after King Phillip's War, reads like Nehemiah's 
story in the Old Testament of the rebuilding of .Jerusalem during the 
captivity. 

King Phillip's War destroyed the first settlements at Groton and 
March 2, 1676, all the houses but four were burned. At the general town 
meeting of the inhabitants assembled at Concord, Mass.. on the second of 
December, 1677, it was agreed that those assembled, "If the Providence of 
God prevented not by death or sickness, will go up in the spring following 
and begin to repair our habitations again, if God permitted; and for the 
^rue performance of this agreement, we do engage the forfeiture of our whole 
right in Groton unto those who do go up and carry on the work." 1 desire 
to interpolate here, that the first record made after the above, relates to 
the grant of lands of Gershom Hobart as minister, and is dated June 29, 
1678. My reason for mentioning that matter is, that a descendant of the 



same name, more than one hundred years later, married the widow of Thomas 
iJennett, as ali^ieady mentioned, and through his connection further proof 
of the directness of my theory of the connection hetween the Groton and 
Saugus Bennetts has been established. 

In 1689, King William's War, as it was called, occurred, and the frontier 
towns of New England were again the scene of barl)arities and destruction. 
In arrangement of the garrisons in Groton, March 17, 1G91, the name of 
Samuel Bennett and another Bennett, whose first name is not given, appears 
in the garrison of five men at Mr. Hezekiah Usher's farm. My theory is, 
that this was Samuel Bennett, .Jr., formerly of Saugus and the grandfather 
of Moses Bennett of Groton. In the early annals of Lynn, it is stated that 
about this time and earlier, there was some immigration of mechanics to 
Groton. The history of Groton says the location of Mr. Usher's farm and 
the Bennetts of that period, is not known, but as the brook rising in Harvard 
and running into Spectacle Pond, is called "Bennett's Brook," it is probable 
that the Bennetts who preceded Moses lived in the vicinity of that brook. 
Cotton Mather refers to the remarka]>le preservation of Gershom Hobart, 
who was one of the eight sons of Rev. Peter Hobart, first minister of Hingham, 
Mass. From 1697 to 1702, peace prevailed at Groton. Then came the war with 
France, upon the accession of Queene Anne, and the frontier towns of Massa- 
chusetts were again exposed to tomahawks, scalping knives, fire and torture. 
In 1675 there was a Moses Bennett in the company of Captain Samuel 
Brocklebank of Rowley, in the garrison at Marlboro, but he unquestionably 
came from Manchester, Mass. In the colonial records of King Phillip's War, 
occurred the names of Peter, Henry, John, Moses and William Bennett. 



Tlieif was aL last atc-ouuts eiglif ( iiiiuplis of Muiiiit'tta in Oopys Hill 

Cemetery, IJosioii. Tlie oUlesi was thai of Sarah Heniiit, wile of Samuel 

Ut'Uiiii, formally of Saii}ius. 'i lu' iuscriitiion i-eads: "Ik're lyes ye body of 

Sarah ISciiiiii, v, iff to Saiuufi ISennil, age 7.' years, deceased .lamiary 18, 

1GS2." 'li.e ii:ost rcceuL epitaph under this name nads: ■'la lueiuory of 

Mrs. Rachaol liemu-lt, wife of liezaleel rjcniiett, who died Octoljer 1, 1814, I 

age 00." I 

Original docjnients concerning Moses liennetl, Jr., of Groton, and j 

also of Thomas and his military and naval service, are in the Massachusetts • 

archives, lioston. An order dated Boston, .luly 21, 1717, signed by Governor | 

Shirley, directing Captain Moses i'eiui'ett to land the guns belonging to ! 

the Brig, Boston Pickett under his command, to secure the stores, haul up 

tne vessels and discharge the ciew excepting a boat-swain and boy to take | 

care of ti e vessel, a muster roll dati d, l>oston, September 13, 1748, shows j 

the muster roll of the ship "Massachusetts," commanded by Captain Moses 
Bennett, and .lune 2u, 17 1!*, tiic pilotage of the frigate "Massachusetts" in 
and out of New York, was ccrtitii d by the autograi)h of Captain Moses 
Benuett. Lydia Adams, the widow of Thomas Bennett, who subsequently 
married Gershom llobarl and lived to the great age alieady mentioned, was 
born in (Jroton, August 4, 174a, the daughter of Methiljushbth Adams, and 
It is inti'ri'sting to note how these old scriptural names were inevitable 
throughout thai period. 

By and by some iierson with greater facility in genealogical research 
and more lime at his disi)osal ihan myself, will ascertain whether there 
was any cause for the co-incident ari'ival of sev^eral Bennetts at so many 



UiilcruuL iioiiilrf in iliu eohjiiifb in llie scvfiilui-ni li cfntiirN; (luii is, wlitjilier 
there was any cumnion iiuinl of deiuii'l uii- lor most ol' llicni in i'JnKland. In 
Mumsl'U's Genfcaloi:i(:al Ii;de.\, i'(.'ferenii's lo iicnnelis ai'e made in TjS diliereiiL 
t)ooks. There v\as a Iknry T.ennetl in li)s\vicli, Massachusel ts, as early 
as IGf)!), as a record of his niurriai'i' wiih Lydiu Feikins of that, lovvn 
tesliheb. In i(i.".4 he Loughi of Jonathan Wade, a fai ni of 2iU) aeres, and 
hesides his homestead, he held considerable land on I'lnm Island and elsewhere. 
'I he early settlers in WjoniinK Valley, Pennsylvania, the seat of siibseiinent 
bloody niassac:res by Indians, w (;r(i ISennells, and wlnn liie now thriving 
city of \Vilive.-.barre lield inil live v/omeii, lliree of Ihem weiv of the name 
of Heniieli. 

William irinnrti, one of llu original planUrs ol Alancln'sier, iVlassa 
(dniselis, who died liiirc in MlNu, has alruad.v bt-cn aiiiuii'd lo. 

Sleiihen !!. iJeiinctt of I'itiston wrole a l)rief volume aboni the 
Pennsylvania liennelis in IS',)',), and aekmn\k'dged that he formerly believed 
Samnel lienneil of i.\i:n lo be an anc-rslei" of the liennelts who wei'e 
di'awn to fhe \\'.\ (nnii!.t; lands Jjy ihe i.Tns(|nelianna ('(unpany. If was later 
discovered, however, that the oilier Samuel was the son of lOdward, who, 
with his wife and four (iiildren, sailed from Weymouth, I'Jngland, and settled 
at Weymouth, Mass., taking up. as he was entitled lo, 156 acres of public 
land and heing made I'^reeman in l(i;')G. 

Richard liennett of X'irginia, alieady alludi'd lo, was the owner of 
immense irads of land in Naiisenicjud ('ounly, whence he came in 1G21. 
His son, Richard of Creeniairg Point, Anne Arundel bounty, Maryland, was 
a niemijei' of the Maryland Assembly in IGlilj. His son, ihe third Richard, 



I;nin ill M-'V.). died in 17 10. owik d 1,?>oo slaves. Tbe "Gentlemon's Magazine.' 
in a Tinticp of liis dontli, says he was the richost man in Hio Colonics. 
His toinl) is at Honnett Point. ()iippn Anne Connt.v, Maryland, with the 
I'-ennott Arms and a Ions inscriijlion. 

The consideration of the individuality of the mod'C^st settlers of those 
early days. f;ives a living- touch to ihe paces of liistory. Samuel I'.ennett 
<f SauRUR hon.E^lit a mill on Pasiamore Hill in lyynn. Dec. 13, Kill, and upon 
the ('ocument rcsinrdini!: the ]iui-chase. uliidi Tna\' be seem at ll^n Salem 
• 'oui't TTouse. is ihe anlo;;i'aph of Samuel I'fmnell. As wo read f)f these 
commeicinj I ransaci ions, it is not eas>- to I'cmemh'cr that the cclcliraled 
vNcdding of Winnuiuuisit . otherwise called Geor.i::e. Sachem of Sauuus, to the 
dauRhler of r,assacon;i\s a>', the pi'cat Penacook chieftain, at what is now 
Concord, New TTami)shir(\ occurr-d in Hl'iS. lh(^ tlK>me of W'hitiier's iiofin 
"The i'.i'idal of I'enncooU." Savacc slate and dignity were, therefore, 
(hmiinant in Saugns and Lynn for many years after iron works and mills 
had hegnn to lie er^tahlished here hy thi^ sturdy settlers. 1 iiav(^ slated that 
the I'ncanoonuc FUlls at IManchester. New llami)shire, can he seen from 
Castle Mill in Sauuns. It was in the Cncanoonuc i'^alls, which drive the great. 
Amoskeag Mills in Manchester. X. H.. that the \\ife of Sach.em George of 
Sanrrns. is said hy a i^oetic fiction to have met her death in her attempt to 
re! urn home to her hushand. 

.Tames Gordon Pennett. the founder of the Xev." York "Herald." a 
Scotchman horn in f\al'fsliire. onc-e wroto; '!"ho Hennetls were a little hand 
of fif el;ool<M-s, A. n. S'jC, in Saxony. 1 have no doubt they robbed and 
plundered a great deal. Tb(\\' migrated to l*"rance and sellled on Ihe Loire, 



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Alicrc tli(\v lived srveral hniKlrod yorirs. The family was Roman Catholic 
rsnd later of (he Church of Ensrlniid." 

It is snid that there are now more than one hundred clergymen of 
the established Church of EnKlan<l. named riennelt. 

In 10)11). at Yognhal, a sonth Irish seaport. Richard. Lord Royle, cansed 
repairs to he made to a certain chapel, time having cansed it to fall ItiIo 
rtiin. Tie carved recnmhent stone effigies of a man and woman upon a 
'tomb, which liears the inscription: "Here lyeth the bodies of Richard Dennett 
and Ellen P.arry, his wife, the first founders of this chapel. It Is for a 
reviving of their memory T have had their figures cut in stone." 

Perhai)s the oldest family of P.(Minetts in England, is at Pithouse, In 
Wilkshire. They have a coat-of-arms whose motto is "P.enedictuc Qui Toluit 
("!oncere." "Hlessed is He who Bears The (^ross." No doubt there have been 
P.ennetts in Germany, France and Ireland, as well aS England and Scotland, 
hut I still insist that their derivation from the given name of Penedict is 
so well estfiblished. that there are many of them whose relationshii) is not 
nearer than by the way of Adam. While history deals largely with kings 
and captains nnd governors, it is inspiring to take \\]^. occasionally, the 
( areer of one of the millions who are marching in th(^ ran1\s. We are lf)ld 
that the apiiarently careless flight of a bird across the sky leaves a iM>rmanent 
imi^ression u]ion the world. How much more iierTiianenI miist lie the 
passage of even the most modest and inconspicuous human soul throiigh 
life. Personally T have never hnd much time to devote to genealogy, but 
1 make no apology for what lit lie interest 1 have been able to manifest 
in the subject, as adding to the dignity and worth of the individual life. 



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